Portuguese Housing Market Survey

‘‘Macro headwinds continue to take their toll on sentiment across the Portuguese housing market, with forward looking survey data pointing to a subdued outlook for activity. For the year ahead, the extent to which interest rates need to rise further to curb inflation remains a crucial factor for the market. For the time being, the ECB is still waiting for evidence that price pressures are easing in a sustainable manner before halting the current cycle of monetary policy tightening.”

“The latest results published by INE confirmed the predictions from the SIR which pointed to softly decreasing levels of activity across the market. Despite this, the first 9 months of 2022 were above the same period of 2021. The projection is that 2022 will end at the same level of the previous year, but on a different trajectory. In 2021, the last quarter was the strongest, achieving a record number of sales. In 2022, the 4th quarter is expected to be the weakest. Even so, the real estate agents surveyed seem to have expectations below current market performance, pointing to further falls in the near future.”